A desire by one Poplar Bluff High School student to eventually make it onto a college bass fishing team sparked the formation of a new club at the school, which continues to grow monthly.
“Kason Henderson is in my auto collision class and wanted to get on a bass fishing team in college. The problem he had was in order to get into some of this, he needed to have a high school team to fish for,” said Technical Career Center instructor Denni White.
“Since Poplar Bluff didn’t really have one established and no one else had one established, I told him we would create a team,” White said.
That was last fall, and today, the club has about 15 active members from not only the high school, but also the junior high.
“We called it the Poplar Bluff Conservation and Bass Fishing Club,” said White, who has taken on the role of advisor and coach. “The main reason for going with ‘Conservation and Bass Fishing Club’ was that during the winter, we could still go into hunting, food plots, trail cameras and different stuff like that and keep the kids interested.
“We want to keep the kids through the winter.”
Henderson and a few other students “basically did some footwork and designed some flyers … everything to establish the club, so that when we presented it to people, it would look like we had our stuff together,” White said.
Admitting he’s “not a huge bass fisherman,” White said, his “whole goal was to get an avenue for these kids to get to college. This opens up that avenue for them, and many don’t even realize they can go to college for fishing.”
“We’re trying to do everything as right as possible, and we did our homework to make this work out,” he added.
The club, which White described as a student-led organization, currently meets every two weeks.
“We discuss electronics, different lures, different casting techniques, lines, reels, things like that,” White said. “We also have some casting competitions.”
Club members also meet periodically to fish local ponds and lakes and share fishing techniques.
“We’ve even taken groups of kids to Bull Shoals for a weekend,” White said.
The idea behind those trips, he noted, is to familiarize the students with tournament fishing, which they also occasionally take part in.
“We’re actually putting them in tournament-style situations,” White said. “They’re on the boats. They have the right gear. They have everything they need to get out there and actually fish competitively.”
A designated adult captain runs each boat, White said, while the students fish.
“If it is a school-sanctioned event, the students are not allowed to operate the vessel. All of our boat captains to this point are all parents,” White explained.
As of now, White noted, he has not asked the school for any funding, feeling that doing so without giving the club time to prove itself could take funds away from other programs. “I want to be self-sustained and self-reliant,” he said.
That means funding falls on the backs of the parents, local sponsors and things like jersey sales.
“We’re hoping we can grow it to a point where we can pull off some of the financial relief for our boat captains, because this time next year, we’re going to be at the national championships and world finals,” White said.
“All of our proceeds that we take in from jersey sales and sponsorships go back to putting the kids in tournaments,” White said, adding “we’re hoping to find some people to donate stuff like fishing tackle and lures for kids that don’t have it.”
While the fishing is competitive, White said, it also is a family atmosphere.
“When we have our fishing days, which I call ‘mock competitions,’ we’ll normally fish for half a day and finish up that evening by grilling some burgers and having all the families come together to talk about their fish,” he explained.
“We make it a good family atmosphere, and it’s been successful because the parents and families are so involved as well,” White added.
In early June, two club members attended the Wiley-X Fishing Camp at Murray State University, something White described as a great experience for his young anglers.
“They met with all of the top pro anglers and spent three days with them, learning not only about lure combinations, but also career opportunities and things behind the scenes,” White said.
Following that event, and with no pre-fishing to pattern the bass, club members took part in a one-day tournament on Kentucky Lake.
“Kason Henderson and Braden Davis got fourth place in that tournament, and Caden Jenkins and Caden Jackson got fifth,” White recalled.
Club members, White said, take seriously their roles because they know where it could lead them in the future.
“We’re not just out here playing. The kids have serious potential,” he said.
There are “a lot of opportunities out there,” White said, using the recent world finals as an example.
“The world finals and national championships just happened in South Carolina, and there was $3 million in scholarships and prizes available,” he said. “I think this will feed scholarships into our area.”
So far, White said, he’s very happy about the direction the club is headed.
“It really blew up a lot bigger than we thought it would, and I believe this will be a huge part of our community in the next few years,” he predicted.